1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head of a wood type golf club, and more particularly to a wood club head having an improved aerodynamic characteristic.
To ensure the greatest travel distance of a golf ball, the speed of the golf club head should be a high as at the moment of impact with the golf ball. To this end, the air resistance against the head of the golf club during a swing thereof must be minimized. This reduction of air resistance is realized by creating a turbulent boundary layer covering as wide a range as possible on the surface of a golf club head to reduce the vortex developed behind the golf club head. This is accomplished by giving the golf club head the optimum streamline shape.
2. Description of the Related Art
The head of a conventional wood type golf club is composed of a head body and a neck formed integrally with the head body. The head body has a club face slanted at a predetermined angle of loft, an upper surface extending rearward in a curve from the upper edge of the club face, a sole surface extending rearward and substantially flat from the lower edge of the club face, and lateral surfaces extending rearward between the upper and sole surfaces from the heel and toe ends of the club face. The neck is projected obliquely upward from the lateral side of the toe of the head body. Usually, the sole surface has a smaller area than that of the upper surface and the lateral surfaces between the upper and sole surfaces is curved slightly outward.
The sole surface of the head body must extend rearward on a substantially flat plane from the lower edge of the club face, and to give the head the optimum streamlined shape, the upper and lateral surfaces of the head body must be curved into a substantially streamlined profile. However, the lateral surface of the head body of the conventional clubs are curved slightly outward between the upper and sole surfaces, as described above, and thus the external profile line of the lateral surfaces is not streamlined when viewed in a vertical cross-section almost perpendicular to the club face extending across the lateral surfaces, and this causes an increase in the air resistance.